
CHAPTER I. ADVERTISED IN CIPHER.
CHAPTER II. THE ANNIVERSARY.
CHAPTER III. THE CLEVER PENCIL.
CHAPTER IV. WITH NERVES OF STEEL.
CHAPTER V. AN INTRUSION OF SCIENCE.
A meticulous psychologist spends his mornings mapping the rhythm of his own pulse as he loses himself in fiction, his sphygmograph tracing the ebb and flow of his excitement on smoked paper. One rainy April morning his quiet routine is shattered by a frantic call and a mysterious classified advertisement—an enigmatic code that hints at a strange, unseen force compelling a young woman to reject her own lover.
When the distraught fiancé bursts into the office, drenched and sleepless, he hands over a photograph of his beloved and pleads for help. The psychologist is drawn into a puzzling case that blends scientific curiosity with an uncanny mystery, as the strange “hammering man” seems to wield an inexplicable power over the woman’s will. Listeners are invited to follow Trant’s methodical mind as he untangles cryptic clues, confronts a baffling psychological phenomenon, and races against time to uncover what lies beneath the odd advertisement.
Language
en
Duration
~48 minutes (46K characters)
Publisher of text edition
Project Gutenberg
Release date
2021-03-18
Rights
Public domain in the USA.

1883–1959
Best remembered for the fast-moving disaster novel When Worlds Collide, he helped shape early American science fiction while also building a strong career in mystery fiction and magazine editing. His work mixes big ideas, suspense, and the polished storytelling of a seasoned newspaperman.
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1872–1951
A journalist turned storyteller, he helped shape early twentieth-century detective fiction with clever mysteries and brisk, magazine-ready suspense. His best-known work with Edwin Balmer introduced Luther Trant, an investigator who used psychology and scientific reasoning long before that became a genre staple.
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